Preserving legacies – how the Art360 Foundation helped artists archive
The Art360 Foundation worked with artists and estates to help preserve cultural heritage through projects and programmes dedicated to conserving artworks and caring for artists’ legacies.
Funded by Arts Council England, The National Lottery, Art Fund, The London Community Foundation, Cockayne, and DACS, and receiving generous support from many donors, it operated from 2014 to 2025.
Artists and estates from across the UK were directly supported by the Foundation’s work. Its advice was far-reaching, helping many preserve the legacy of their art or that of an artist they were close to.
The Art360 Programme offered expert consultation: guidance on conservation, curation, digitisation of artwork and more, to make artists’ work accessible for future generations.
The archival programme
“Working with Art360 was an immensely positive experience...Over the past couple of years, I have physically put my work in chronological order, digitised it, remade and photographed costumes and established a basis from which to continue archiving new work.” – Hayley Newman
The archival programme, a key initiative, worked with 54 artists and artists’ estates, resulting in the preservation of thousands of pieces of artwork and archive material, including those related to artistic practice of a more ephemeral nature like performance.
Bursary places for this programme were awarded through an open submission process, with recipients selected by a panel of artists.
Artists’ responses
Many artists or estates who were involved in the Art 360 Foundation programme praised the journey and funding that enabled them to focus on archiving. Here are some responses from David Batchelor, Edward Woodman and others.
David Batchelor
Edward Woodman
Periodic photo booth self-portrait c.1978, c.1993 and c.2013.
Ruth Ewan
“The process of archiving has been pretty immense really. I mean it's not something that I'd necessarily carve out time for, you've got commitments… there's a lot going on. There's points in the past where I've tried to organize things but never to this degree.”
Maria Chevska
“I’m conscious this is not a professional depository. It is hoped that certain of the archives will be placed in a professional public depository.” – Maria Chevska.
Alan Dimmick
“I'm really excited about the idea of seeing my work in a way that that's just not quite as haphazard as my mind can be sometimes.” – Alan Dimmick
John Latham estate
“With the funds from Art360 we've been able to work with a researcher who has been going through every document in the visual material, and cataloging it and
documenting it so for the future we will have this database of all of this material. The archive is vital for understanding the artist.” – John Latham estate
“The 360 project has really allowed me to build a coherent narrative around the actual artwork which has been invaluable and completely brilliant actually.” – Sarah Staton.
Liliane Lijn
“I would like to have all my work photographed. Most of my drawings are not photographed at all. It’s a very long process doing this.” – Liliane Lijn
Art360 events
Between 2017 and 2023 there was an active series of events in a variety of formats, from artist panel discussion, to film screening, and webinars to workshops. Topics included: archiving contemporary art, authorship and legacy, databases, and copyright.
Some of these events were documented through writeups, photography and film, namely: Being Making Becoming: Women’s Art Archives as Sites of Activation, Edward Woodman: The Documentation of Contemporary Art in Transition, Art and Archives Event Series with The National Archives, Film Launch and Q&A Matthew Lanyon: No Holds Barred, Art, Memory and Place.
Grants awarded
The core part of the Art360 Programme was awarding grants to assist artists and estates with archiving and cataloguing works and materials from their practice.
Governance
The Foundation was governed by a board of trustees and 2 advisory boards.
Major supporters
Arts Council England, Art Fund, DACS, John Feeney Charitable Trust, The London Community Foundation Cockayne, National Galleries Scotland, The Africa Institute, Brisith Art Network, Henry Moore Foundation, The National Lottery, ICF, H&WI, plus Turtleton Charitable Trust, the Hollick Family Charitable Trust, the P F Charitable Trust.
Auction donors
DACS and partners Christie’s and Paddle8, alongside many individual donors, raised £90,000 for bursaries for artists and estates for the first Art360 Programme in 2016.
Next steps
Information from the Art360 Foundation website has been incorporated into the DACS website to ensure that artists and estates have access to the knowledge and experience gained through the programme.
DACS exists to champion, protect and manage the rights of artists, maximising their royalties. As one of the core donors to the Art360 Foundation, DACS have created 2 new Advice section articles.
The Foundation’s last distribution of bursaries is the current Recollect programme, which is being managed and delivered with the support of DACS.
